Canada is pushing for surviving World War II vets who served with the famed Devil’s Brigade to receive one of the United States’ top honours.

OTTAWA—Canada is pushing for surviving World War II vets who served with the famed Devil’s Brigade to receive one of the United States’ top honours.

Canadian diplomats in Washington have invited lawmakers from this country and the United States to a Feb. 29 event to raise awareness about the First Special Service Force, and support a bill by two American senators to have the unit receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Devil’s Brigade was a joint Canada-U.S. unit of elite soldiers trained for the most daring and dangerous missions of the war. Their tasks were often considered suicidal, but they were carried out with a no-fail mandate between 1942 and 1944.

The Devil’s Brigade recorded more than 2,300 casualties but boasted of having captured 30,000 prisoners of war. There are an estimated 230 veterans of the unit still living in Canada and the U.S.

Two Senators from Montana, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, introduced a bill last year to grant the force the Congressional Gold Medal, noting that the force’s headquarters were at Fort Harrison in Helena, Montana.

Receiving the medal would put Canadian and U.S. war veterans in hallowed company. Previous recipients of the medal include flight pioneers the Wright brothers, light bulb inventor Thomas Edison, animator Walt Disney, sprinter Jesse Owens, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and the American astronauts behind the first moon walk.

A spokesman with the Canadian embassy said the story of the force was inspirational and that the government was “happy to be helping Senator Baucus in his efforts to have them awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.”

Modern-day special operations forces, including Canada’s Joint Task Force 2 and the U.S. Navy Seals trace their roots back to the First Special Service Force, even though they were created decades later. The men of the Devil’s Brigade pioneered the use of unconventional tactics like covert landings from the water, parachuting behind enemy lines and Nordic combat — all basic tools in the arsenal of today’s commandos.

A spokesman for the Canadian Special Operations Force Command, which is home to JTF2 and the Canadian Special Operations Regiment, confirmed it will also have representatives at the event.

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